MP 1,1-5,1 GPU Swap Failure

[ApplePearGrapefruit]

Good evening everyone! Yesterday I picked up a Sapphire R9 280X to replace the HD 5770 in my 4,1 Mac Pro. It has a 6 and 8 pin power connector, so I bought two adapters to properly power it. For the 8 pin, I got a 2 mini 6-pin to 8-pin adapter and for the 6-pin, I got a SATA adapter to use from the HDD slot. I swapped in the new card and hooked everything up and turned on the computer and the graphics card was powered up. Next thing I know, I smell something terrible and see smoke coming out of the Pro. After quickly yanking out the power cord, I took everything out and found that the SATA port had melted to the adapter. I had watched a video that said that this was okay to do, so I guess I'm just curious why this happened? Am I just really dumb or does the card draw to much power or am I overlooking something? Also, is it ok for me to power it back up with the melted SATA port? Thanks in advance!

 

[tsialex]

Good evening everyone! Yesterday I picked up a Sapphire R9 280X to replace the HD 5770 in my 4,1 Mac Pro. It has a 6 and 8 pin power connector, so I bought two adapters to properly power it. For the 8 pin, I got a 2 mini 6-pin to 8-pin adapter and for the 6-pin, I got a SATA adapter to use from the HDD slot. I swapped in the new card and hooked everything up and turned on the computer and the graphics card was powered up. Next thing I know, I smell something terrible and see smoke coming out of the Pro. After quickly yanking out the power cord, I took everything out and found that the SATA port had melted to the adapter. I had watched a video that said that this was okay to do, so I guess I'm just curious why this happened? Am I just really dumb or does the card draw to much power or am I overlooking something? Also, is it ok for me to power it back up with the melted SATA port? Thanks in advance!

A SATA connector can provide 54W max, with no reserves, while the 6-pin mini PCIe of the backplane is rated to 75W with a tolerance for something around 110W before the SMC cuts out power with an emergency shutdown.

The moment the GPU had power draw of over the 54W for the 6-pin PCIe connector, this would fail. Unfortunately, no surprise here.

 

[ApplePearGrapefruit]

A SATA connector can provide 54W max, with no reserves, while the 6-pin mini PCIe of the backplane is rated to 75W with a tolerance for something around 110W before the SMC cuts out power with an emergency shutdown.

The moment the GPU had power draw of over the 54W for the 6-pin PCIe connector, this would fail. Unfortunately, no surprise here.

Thanks for the reply! I watched this video:

and after reading the comments, somebody mentioned this issue. If only i would have read the comments beforehand

 

[avro707]

Never trust random Youtube videos, always watch a number of them or ask here first.

I wonder if it's time to find a well looked after 5,1 or something much newer? After the smokescreen I wouldn't chance it.

 

[ApplePearGrapefruit]

Never trust random Youtube videos, always watch a number of them or ask here first.

I wonder if it's time to find a well looked after 5,1 or something much newer? After the smokescreen I wouldn't chance it.

Lesson learned but I might not have taken your advice. Popped back in the 5770 and she powered right up. Still running just as good as before (minus a hard drive bay).

 

[tsialex]

For GPUs around 225W power draw, the best way to provide power, when you don't want to do a Pixla's mod, is to install an eVGA PowerLink, works for most R9-280X, VEGA 56, GTX 1080Ti with reference design.